For large, industrial robotic applications it is often necessary to manipulate a part that is the target of a robot so that the robot may access the part from different sides and at different angles. For instance, in many welding applications it is often desirable to place the part in front of the robot at a specific angle so that the weld applied by the robot occurs with a specific relation to gravity since the effect of gravity on the molten metal may play a key role in the end quality of the weld. When welding along a curved line, it may further be desirable to rotate the part to maintain the weld/part angle with respect to gravity and the robot welder. For various industrial robotic applications, the target part may be very large and/or unwieldy. Thus, the part positioner to position the target part for work operations by the robot may need to be very large to accommodate the target part.